Comments on: "Speaks strange language? Check. Ethnic-style dress? Check. Very suspicious".

"Speaks strange language? Check. Ethnic-style dress? Check. Very suspicious".

matteo — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 10:36:10 -0800

Terrorists from Antarctica. Two Seaworld penguins flying out of San Diego airport are sent walking through the metal detector. Better safe than sorry. via BoingBoing, via Schneier

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 10:43:08 -0800

It isn't like the darn things can be trusted, you know.

By: borkingchikapa

borkingchikapa — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 10:46:24 -0800

Oh my god, everything is retarded.

By: Mr_Zero

Mr_Zero — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 10:50:52 -0800

The future (nsfw) of air travel.

By: gubo

gubo — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 10:52:46 -0800

I suspect a publicity stunt. This says penguins are transported in cases in the cargo hold like dogs and cats.

By: Stan Chin

Stan Chin — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 10:53:17 -0800

Was it the flight to Gotham City? I don't think I could have gotten past security with a giant candy-striped rocket strapped to my back either.

By: Joybooth

Joybooth — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 10:56:21 -0800

Cute! I was certain HuronBob's link was going to be about homopengs and I applaud him for not posting the MetaStatus Quo. P.S. "Anheuser Bush"? So. True.

By: Staggering Jack

Staggering Jack — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 10:59:32 -0800

I, for one, welcome our new penguin...aw forget it.

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 11:02:05 -0800

Metafilter: Everything is Retarded.

By: clevershark

clevershark — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 11:07:25 -0800

The future (nsfw) of air travel. Well, it does make it easier to tell the "first class" passengers from the "coach" passengers, if you catch my drift.

By: bigtimes

bigtimes — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 11:17:56 -0800

It isn't like the darn things can be trusted, you know.
No, I can't say they can.

By: scheptech

scheptech — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 11:31:43 -0800

I'd be mighty tempted to make 'em walk through purely for entertainment's sake. Oh yes, definitely.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 11:37:27 -0800

gubo: "I suspect a publicity stunt." Seconded. This was funny. Done for entertainment's sake, nothing more.

By: adamvasco

adamvasco — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 11:43:17 -0800

Just to be pedantic.... the screening actually happened at Denver airport.

By: MrZero

MrZero — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 11:45:26 -0800

It had to be a publicity stunt. There was a TV camera there from the local news. Airports are not very keen on TV cameras hanging out at the security checkpoint.

By: Captaintripps

Captaintripps — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 11:46:11 -0800

I suspect they just had to run the carrier through an x-ray machine.

By: teece

teece — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 11:52:44 -0800

I third the PR stunt thing. Channel 7 doesn't have an actual story, just pictures with funny captions. They sure are cute though. Now, would you really want a penguin in the regular passenger cabin of a plane, though? What if they crap or piss on something/someone? Or attack somebody, as has apparently happened to Torvalds. Of course, it's funner to think the screener assumed they were robot penguins, powered by Russian-hacker modified Linux (of course), with laser beams for eyes. So he wanted to x-ray them. Little did he know they were made entirely of composites ...

By: clevershark

clevershark — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 11:57:58 -0800

Airports are not very keen on TV cameras hanging out at the security checkpoint. Indeed, using a camera in the screening area is something you can be arrested for, unless of course it's a meaningless publicity stunt pre-arranged with the airport authorities...

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:08:01 -0800

I totally want penguins on my next flight.

By: jenleigh

jenleigh — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:29:25 -0800

Cute. Thanks, matteo.

By: BlackLeotardFront

BlackLeotardFront — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:32:01 -0800

I honked.

By: matteo

matteo — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:33:22 -0800

*frisks BlackLeotardFront*

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:36:20 -0800

I was certain HuronBob's link was going to be about homopengs and I applaud him for not posting the MetaStatus Quo. Google: Your search - homopengs - did not match any documents.

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:38:08 -0800

Did the PR fail? THe brewery is Annhueser BUSCH, not Bush.

By: thanatogenous

thanatogenous — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:39:19 -0800

"OK people, I'm going through the metal detector. Are you happy now?" I think that little Mr. Grumpykins needs to be detained indefinitely without the ability to contact a lawyer.

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 13:02:32 -0800

The brewery is Annhueser BUSCH, not Bush. And you think trading on the President's name is a coincidence...

By: Satapher

Satapher — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 13:19:17 -0800

publicity. move along.

By: Busithoth

Busithoth — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 13:26:42 -0800

Did the PR fail? THe brewery is Annhueser BUSCH, not Bush. the only proper retort to this is: Need some penguin?

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 13:49:14 -0800

this has to be made up ... penguins can't fly

By: Tuwa

Tuwa — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 14:09:53 -0800

pyramid termite wins.

By: Space Kitty

Space Kitty — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 14:13:27 -0800

I'd pay extra for penguins on my flight.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 14:57:17 -0800

I'd pay extra for penguins on my flight. They'd probably just taste like chicken with an anchovy on top.

By: scody

scody — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 15:13:37 -0800

Were the penguins allowed to keep their jumpers on?

By: johnj

johnj — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 17:24:37 -0800

Where they given a cavity search or where they found during a cavity search?

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 18:16:17 -0800

The funny part isn't that it was publicity stunt. The funny part is that we all had to double-check to see if it was a publicity stunt. Because things have become so ridiculously bizarre since 9/11, you can't just immediately dismiss this a joke. And it's not just the Transportation Security Administration: so much of what goes on under the Bush Administration -- from the suppression of honest science to private bills to keep a dead woman on life support, from Senators explaining away violence against judges to the absurd contention that a guy who used his daddy's influence to sit out the Vietnam War in Alabama is more patriotic than a man who earned three Purple Hearts in Vietnam, when the Christian Right calls investigation of anti-Semitism at a Federal military academy "a witch hunt ... to root out Christian beliefs" -- it all reads like a particularly heavy-handed, humorless, poorly written attempt at parody by a third-rate author of the paranoid Lefty variety. Except that it's all true. How the hell did we let the country get to the point where real headlines are indistinguishable from overwrought parody? And how the hell do we get back to normalcy?

By: horsewithnoname

horsewithnoname — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 18:52:02 -0800

Well...that was fun for a while.

By: Space Kitty

Space Kitty — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 19:51:02 -0800

Oh, for shame ROU_Xenophobe. Tsk, tsk.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 20:26:20 -0800

From the same cartoon: Pen-goo-ins is practickally chickens. Now can someone help out a fellow American who's down on his luck?

By: archae

archae — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 20:38:04 -0800

Next time I fly I'm going to take along a full-sized metal detector! Hah, just imagine the implications of having to pass my metal detector through their metal detector! The Global War-on-Some-Terror will certainly tremble!

By: Witty

Witty — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 01:15:42 -0800

And how the hell do we get back to normalcy? As long as we have the internet, it'll never happen.

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 04:40:24 -0800

Well, Ortho...that's the nice thing about normal...it always is.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 08:00:29 -0800

orthogonality: "The funny part isn't that it was publicity stunt. The funny part is that we all had to double-check to see if it was a publicity stunt. Because things have become so ridiculously bizarre since 9/11, you can't just immediately dismiss this a joke." In an alternate universe somewhere, Al Gore won in 2000, and Paris Paramus is making all the same posts you're making here.

By: dagnyscott

dagnyscott — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 10:31:26 -0800

You know what... this is a cute publicity stunt... but I have a hard time being disturbed by "Haha, this is so ridiculous, x is being searched for bombs!" because honestly, if airport security listened to that, it would automatically become incredibly simple to bring a bomb on an airplane. Like, "It's totally outrageous to search 80-year-olds" and someone will find a way to get 80-year-olds to bring bombs on planes for them, or "There's no way they should search children!" or "This should never be done to a pregnant woman!" same thing.

By: pmurray63

pmurray63 — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 13:43:02 -0800

just imagine the implications of having to pass my metal detector through their metal detector! It would be like crossing the streams, I'd imagine.

By: joedharma

joedharma — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 00:29:16 -0800

The funny part is that we all had to double-check to see if it was a publicity stunt. Because things have become so ridiculously bizarre since 9/11, you can't just immediately dismiss this a joke. Thanks Ortho, I agree